The McKells Take On China

Fengdu (Jai’s Hometown)

Chinese Date: Friday, December 17, 2010 5:00 pm

Today we visited Fengdu.  This place is so amazing!  It is considered a small town but is almost 3 times as big as Columbus.  We left Chongqing at 9 and drove for 4 hours.  As you can probably guess, almost all of us took a nap.  When we arrived in Fengdu, we met up with the director of Jai’s orphanage.  She was extremely nice.  We went to a hot pot restaurant where we had green tea, peanut milk, lamb, beef, and chicken.  Some of it was spicy, but most of it was pretty good.

After lunch, we went to the orphanage.  It was so sweet.  We got there and all of the orphanage workers came out.  One of us said “Hi” to them and they said it back.  They were so excited because they had learned some English.  Then, the director took us up to the nursery where Jaidyn would have stayed.  There were 8 toddlers and one newborn baby.  6 of the toddlers had some sort of sickness or disability.  The newborn had just arrived and was only about 2 days old.  We got to talk with them and play with them.  I have pics of them up on Flickr.

Then, the orphanage director took us to her office where we gave her some presents for herself, the workers, and the children.  And then, of course, we took pictures.  First, we took pics of her and Jaidyn in her office.  Then, we went outside to the old gate.  The old gate is where they found Jaidyn almost 7 years ago, right on the steps.

The orphanage director wanted a digital camera so they could take pictures of the children, so we went to the local shopping district to buy one for them.  It took forever!  But that was okay because there was a playground, an outdoor exercise area, and people were standing in the street dancing.  I know that sounds weird to us, but it’s totally normal for them.  They have an outdoor exercise/dancing time at least twice a day.  You just walk down the street and there they are.  Not only was that cool to watch, but we got to have a taste of what it feels like to be a celebrity.  Everyone was starting at us, and not discretely like in the US.  They were flat out staring.  It was hilarious!  A little girl followed us around the whole time.  She finally got brave enough to say hi to Lauren, but that was it.

Anyway, we’re at the hotel now where we will be for the rest of tonight.  Tomorrow we will visit the Ghost Town (I’ll tell you all about that tomorrow) and then head back to Chongqing.  We will spend tomorrow night in Chongqing and then fly back to Beijing on Sunday.  I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow.  Have a good day!

God Bless,

~Kristen

P.S.  Sorry about all of the typos yesterday.  I was SO tired.